Smile
by MissAppropriation
Summary: Kacchan finds a way to fight back against his mother. My first MHA/BNHA fic, definitely heed the warnings. Nothing graphic but trigger warning for child abuse.


***  
First off... **TRIGGER WARNING: emotional and physical CHILD ABUSE is the main subject of this fic.** It is not graphic, but it is absolutely addressed directly. Proceed with caution.  
***

Ok, that said... I started watching this show about a month ago and was very quickly HOOKED. For those of you who are familiar with me from my other fandom (*waves at my Time Lord boys*), if you haven't watched My Hero Academia... START NOW. It has several of my all time favorite characters from ANY fandom, truly incredible character arcs, and a wealth of deep platonic relationships which the story spends A LOT of time on.

It's currently in Season 4 and only getting better.

Highly recommend.

* * *

**Smile**

"You have to do the smile, Kacchan."

"Huh?"

"If you're going to be All Might," Deku explained with a stare that spoke of barely-contained fanboy alarm, "you have to _smile_. All Might's always smiling, haven't you noticed?"

Before Kacchan could answer, Deku proceeded to dance in place, pumping his arms, enthusiasm brimming over. He raised one feeble fist into the air.

"It's fine now," he exclaimed to the sky, smile far wider than All Might's. "Because _I_ am here!"

Kacchan clenched his own fists, thinking of the two new moves he'd mastered since he and Deku had last fought. He wanted to test them out.

"I told you," Kacchan glared, suspicious of the turn things were taking. "_I'm_ All Might."

Deku paused in his forced laughter and lowered his fist. "But Kacchan," he said with somber earnestness. "If you're going to be All Might, you _have_ to do the smile."

Kacchan narrowed his eyes. "Fighting villains is serious," he countered. "I'll smile when I beat you."

He wasn't _wrong,_ of course. All Might _was_ always smiling.

Kacchan had always assumed it was just because All Might was the best: he had plenty to smile about.

"Why do _you_ get to be All Might, though?" Deku asked.

Kacchan looked away with a sneer. "Because I'm older."

Deku's eyes got wider and shinier.

_Great._

_Here it comes…_

Deku had one move when up against an obstacle: cry.

Kacchan couldn't believe how often it worked.

It bugged him...

Life just wasn't that easy.

Still, sometimes he let the little nerd have his way just so he'd stop with the waterworks.

It was looking like this would be one of those times.

"I don't want to be a villain," Deku whined, lips quivering. "Mom always lets me be All Might..."

Kacchan turned away with a shrug. "Go play with your mom, then," he said indifferently, calling the younger boy's bluff.

Kacchan snuck a look behind him to see what his friend would do. Deku seemed uncertain, eyes predictably welling up with tears.

Ugh, every time...

Seriously, this kid cried about _everything._

"Fine," Kacchan relented with an irritated huff. "I have a better idea. You be All Might. I'll be _me_."

Deku's naive, green eyes lit up, then the confusion returned. "But Kacchan... Why would you be fighting All Might? Heroes don't fight other heroes."

Kacchan shrugged. "I'm sure they do sometimes. How else would they know who's the best?"

Duku still looked confused. "Ok," he said after a minute.

"I'll still win," Kacchan told Deku, stretching in preparation for their one-sided battle.

Deku shook his head, uncertainty vanishing, replaced by absolute conviction. "No one wins against All Might."

Kacchan laughed. Not like Deku's false All Might laugh. Quieter and deadlier. "_I_ will." He gestured towards Deku. "Just look at you, Deku. You're not much of an All Might," he pointed out with harsh condescension.

Deku seemed unaffected by Kacchan's tone.

He raised his chin and locked his eyes on Kacchan's with a surprisingly intense stare. "I'll do my best," he said, and set his feet apart in a frail mockery of a fighting stance. "Now, surrender, Kacchan!" He broke character to whisper past his hand. "Um... What's your hero name?"

"Who cares?" Kacchan grinned. He planted his feet, taking the solid stance he'd perfected from those All Might videos and the martial arts classes his mom had signed him up for. "I'll beat you no matter what you call me."

"No Quirks?" Deku checked.

"I don't need a Quirk to beat you, _Deku_," Kacchan taunted.

Deku's mouth tightened. He didn't like the nickname but he rarely did more than pout about it.

"Unless you think today is the day you can finally beat me?" Kacchan added.

It wouldn't be. It wasn't even a contest.

_"Remarkably talented," _Kacchan's teachers all said. _"A real prodigy."_

They wouldn't have much to teach him soon, they added. He was consistently beating kids three grades above him at this point.

And here was Deku... So determined.

Like he even had a chance.

Deku nodded and Kacchan didn't hold back. He was older and stronger and to make matters worse, Deku hesitated every time he saw an opening.

Kacchan sometimes wished Deku would take a class, though he'd certainly be terrible at fighting. Little nerd overthought everything... That wasn't good in combat where you had to be _fast_. Where you had to be _merciless_.

It ended quickly, as it was always going to: with Deku pinned and gasping under his adversary.

"Do you give up?" Kacchan growled. "_All Might?_"

"Kacchan," Deku pleaded, squirming in discomfort.

But Kacchan knew every pressure point, knew pain firsthand. He couldn't use his Quirk in class but he'd discovered so many similarities in fine-tuning his abilities.

There were limits. He'd learned that lesson first. Pushing too far without a goal hurt him as much as the person he was up against. Control and swift decisions were as vital as pure power.

Find your opponent's weakness and exploit it with precision.

Hit them where it hurt, just hard enough that they assumed you could do so much worse. That they would lose their spirit and surrender.

Waste no energy you didn't need to. It could be saved for the next opponent.

There were always more opponents.

He didn't explain this to anyone. It smacked a bit too much of those Hero Notebooks of Deku's. And besides, he wasn't about to advertise his strategies.

Because someday, he'd be a hero. And villains would be hungry for the advantage that came with knowing your enemy.

Deku didn't fight.

He didn't train, didn't push himself.

Didn't know his own limits or those of others.

Kacchan was seven, Deku six.

And already, the gap between them was widening.

Deku acted as if it was all about having a Quirk. Some of it was, certainly...

But not all of it.

Deku just didn't have the same experience... In moments like this, it became glaringly obvious.

Kacchan felt so far away, staring into the void between them as he felt Deku's ineffectual struggles to escape.

The kid just didn't _get_ it.

What, did he think the faint aches in his limbs were an accident?

That Kacchan didn't know _exactly_ what he was feeling?

Hadn't felt all that and more a thousand times?

"Give up!" Kacchan shouted, tightening his hold just enough that Deku would know how much he was holding back. How hopeless his position was. "Say it! Say I _win_!"

Deku looked away and he seemed unhappy.

Of course he did.

He'd _lost_.

"You win," Deku admitted in a low voice.

Kacchan didn't feel the satisfaction he'd hoped for.

Instead he just felt... Empty.

That gaping pit in his stomach that he was never quite prepared for, that never really went away...

He let his defeated opponent go.

"The strongest hero always wins," he reminded Deku joylessly.

The younger boy's eyes were on him, wide and hard to read.

"What're looking at?" Kacchan bristled.

"You're going to be an amazing hero, Kacchan," Deku said.

Kacchan narrowed his own eyes suspiciously in response, then relaxed into a grin. "Of course," he agreed, the dissatisfaction was briefly lessened.

The cream always rose to the top.

It was the way of the world.

And he'd make absolutely certain that was _him_.

Everyone else seemed to suppose that one was born a hero. They praised his Quirk and assumed he would be be a pro as if it was so _simple_, a matter of course.

But Kacchan knew better.

It took _work_. One's Quirk was nothing without training and dedication.

He would work harder than anyone else until he took the place they all seemed to think he was born into.

Until no one else even stood a chance.

And that was the moment when he realized that the sun was setting...

It was time to go home.

Past time.

His smile disappeared.

"Kacchan?" Deku's voice broke into his thoughts.

There was that look again... What _was_ that?

Did Quirkless, give-up-and-run-away Deku really think Kacchan needed his _pity_?

What good had that ever done anyone?

Nothing was ever accomplished with pity.

Pity was for losers.

"I gotta go," Kacchan said, plunging his hands into his pockets and setting off towards home.

Shoulders slumped.

Defeated.

He left Deku where he'd bested him, in the dirt.

That seemed to be the place Deku had chosen for himself.

They'd been friends since they met, mainly because Deku was always somehow just _there_.

They shared a neighborhood, a school, a passion for heroes, and a particular admiration for All Might.

But in the end, maybe they were just too different.

...

"Where were you?" Mitsuki asked as her son walked in the door.

"With Deku," Katsuki replied shortly. "Is there dinner?"

"You missed it," she said, tone light.

She seemed unconcerned, as always. A distant brightness playing behind her eyes, her mind occupied with some brilliant, unshared future.

Kacchan was finally starting to understand just how crucial he was to that future.

He had been slow to figure it out, really.

It wasn't as if she had ever been especially subtle about how his specific Quirk had come into being.

How many men in the world had a Quirk which produced nitric acid?

The chemical uniquely suited to combine with her passive glycerin-producing Quirk to create a truly explosive progeny.

Kacchan hadn't understood, at first. He'd been so proud when he'd found he could make fireworks in the palms of his hands...

It stung, of course.

But it was so _pretty_. Kids and teachers alike had stared, transfixed by admiration.

Turns out, his beautiful Quirk had been engineered by his mother, just like everything else ahead of him.

It wasn't as if he didn't want to be a Pro Hero. Of course he did.

But no one had ever _asked_ him what he wanted. It was all assumed. All laid out.

Everything he did, every talent, every easy victory...

All his successes just made his mother shine brighter.

As if none of it even belonged to him.

As if he didn't even exist, swallowed up by her vision.

Sometimes, he felt absolutely smothered.

That made him scared.

And it made him _angry_.

"You ate it all, you fat swine," he muttered to his mother under his breath.

Kacchan was fast, stronger than all the other boys in his class. He could beat boys twice his size. They'd glare at him with wounded pride and scream obscenities when they found him outside of class with no adults nearby to stop them.

Kacchan would fix them with a stare and set his feet and wait.

Sometimes, they backed down in the face of his silence.

Sometimes, they hesitated, and he yelled back louder than they had.

Sometimes, they fought... And then he _always_ won.

But that was outside the house.

At home, things were different.

With all his training, he still wasn't fast enough to dodge the slap which sent him flying across the kitchen.

Kacchan scrambled into a defensive crouch in the corner where he'd landed and snarled as his mother stepped closer to stand over him.

She wasn't afraid.

She was never afraid.

He really envied that.

It was one of the things he hated most about her.

"Is that any way to talk to your mother, Katsuki?" she asked serenely.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of motion in the hallway.

It was gone as quickly as it had appeared. His father, running from the situation as soon as he saw it.

Let him run...

It wasn't as if he'd be any help.

He'd never stood up to his wife and never would... Not for his son nor for himself. Not in a million lifetimes.

"You're going to starve me now?" Kacchan asked, knowing how obsessively she considered everything. For all her ambition, Bakugo Mitsuki considered herself a practical woman. "How do you think I'll do at class tomorrow if you don't feed me?"

Mitsuki reached forward to pat her son's cheek with a cold, soft hand and he jerked away from her touch with a growl. "Don't be silly, of course you need to eat. I didn't give you life for nothing." She smacked him on the back of the head, just hard enough to sting. Just to remind him that he was helpless.

She made him a plate of food, set it at the table as if nothing had happened.

They both knew he needed to eat.

For their own reasons, they both wanted him to be strong.

But there was a strange feeling in Kacchan's stomach, drowning out the hunger.

Like he had _nothing_.

She always left him this way... With no pride left, no way to win.

She pulled out the chair and paused when he didn't move.

"Are you going to make me help you sit down and eat?" The threat was not meant to be subtle and was far from empty.

She was not above picking him up and force-feeding him if he resisted.

It wouldn't be the first time.

There really was no way out. She would win no matter what he did.

But... He just needed _something_.

He thought about the future, clinging to his story.

Someday... Someday, he would be a hero. Better even than All Might.

He'd be Number One.

But even that would be her victory.

Sometimes, he wished no one had any expectations of him. If he failed, he lost. If he succeeded, he _still_ lost.

He thought about Deku. No Quirk, no plans, no mapped-out future to conform to or rebel against...

Obviously, he'd never amount to anything.

But at least he had that option.

Anything he achieved or failed at would be his own.

Kacchan wasn't even _allowed_ to fail.

Sure, Deku was pitiful. But at least he was _free_.

Deku didn't even know how good he had it, so caught up on the Quirk he'd never developed that he couldn't see that he'd been the lucky one, really.

Kacchan's mother watched him, that easy, confident expectation in her eyes.

As if it was all settled, all preordained.

As if it was simply Fate.

And all Kacchan wanted was to use everything he had to burn and tear that certainty from her.

But he couldn't, of course. Because he _would_ be a hero. Just like she wanted.

"I hate you," he said.

She shrugged, unaffected. It wasn't exactly the first time she had heard that from her son.

"I wish you would die," he added, stepping it up a notch.

She laughed with that musicality which all the other moms in the neighborhood flocked to. "One day, Katsuki. But not before you eat your dinner."

Kacchan closed his eyes and cursed.

At least he had that. His parents insisted on politeness.

Kacchan didn't see the point.

What, he had to defeat villains _politely_?

The world needed heroes and no one would refuse him entrance to UA just because he was rude. They wouldn't be able to: he'd be too good by then.

And after all, Endeavor, his mother's favorite, wasn't exactly well-liked by fans.

He still found it immensely ironic that his mother hoped for him to emulate the Number Two hero.

Who wanted to be _Number Two_?

However, in terms of mainstream success, Endeavor actually _was_ Number One: he was the highest-grossing hero of all time.

This was mostly because All Might insisted on donating the vast majority of his earnings.

But being a hero wasn't about money, despite what Kaccahn's mother seemed to think.

It wasn't even about fame.

None of that was why Kacchan looked up to All Might above all the other heroes.

All Might was just... _Better._

It was undeniable, impossible to miss.

All Might was the best and that's what Kacchan wanted to be, whatever it took.

This was one of the things Kacchan and Deku always agreed on: All Might was unrivaled by any other hero, past or present. They talked about it endlessly and it never got old.

Though Deku didn't quite have the capacity to understand how incredible All Might's fighting tactics were. Still, Kacchan was happy to explain, to point out the skill and genius behind the victories.

Deku had an overwhelming tendency to glorify hero Quirks at the expense of all else, but he was starting to add a bit more actual strategy to his notebooks.

Say what you would about the little nerd, he certainly did pay attention...

Kacchan's reverie was interrupted by a slimy hand grabbing his face roughly.

He knew she was angry before he even opened his eyes: she had a tendency to lose control of her quirk when her temper flared.

"Katsuki," she said.

The sound of his name coming from her mouth twisted his stomach every time.

She didn't even need to say anything else. The cold-steel edge to her tone communicated better than words.

He looked into eyes identical to his own. Cold and sparkling and blank.

_Is this really a fight you think you can win? _those eyes asked.

And it really wasn't.

He could fight back, slip away from her but... To what end? How far could he get?

Where could he go?

She had won the moment she had given birth to him.

Everyone thought Kacchan had been born with everything. Even Deku thought so.

The truth was, he had nothing of his own. Not his life, his home, his face, his Quirk, his future...

Try as he might, he couldn't wrest any of it back from his mother's slick, glycerin-coated grip.

"I heard you, you old hag," he said.

She frowned, vaguely displeased with his response. "You have a very disrespectful attitude. That's not how heroes talk. We'll have to work on that."

Kacchan tried to hide his panic. _Working on it,_ was never good coming from his mother.

Although, it had been a while since she'd tried anything particularly inventive. He might be able to explode his way out of the small spaces she liked to lock him in at this point... Locks were fragile and he was getting good at focusing his explosions.

"You think there's anything you can do about it, _busu?_" he challenged with more confidence than he felt. "I'm getting stronger every day. One day..."

She quirked a smile at him, pleased with his rebellion. "One day, what?"

He let loose a couple of explosions, carefully controlled, just for emphasis. "I'll kill you, old woman."

It was an empty threat and they both knew it.

But he had hoped to catch her off balance for at least a moment.

No such luck...

She still looked supremely confident. Untouchable.

Kacchan felt the void open up inside him again, felt himself falling into despair.

For some reason, he remembered Deku's voice from earlier, remembered that video Deku watched over and over.

_"Look!" _he'd point out excitedly, squirming in his seat as Kacchan studied on the floor nearby. _"Even when everything is hopeless, he __always_ _keeps smiling."_

Something clicked inside Kacchan's brain.

A couple of pieces fitting together in a way he hadn't expected.

Like when a new move suddenly just _worked_, became second nature as his body adjusted to the threat without even a thought.

_"When everything is hopeless... He keeps smiling."_

Maybe those two things weren't connected in quite the way Deku thought.

All Might often found himself up against overwhelming odds. And still, he always won.

He never even seemed worried.

He'd defeat the villains and raise his fist in the air as if there was never a doubt about how it would end.

But one didn't become the Top Hero by underestimating one's opponents.

All Might couldn't be as confident as he always appeared...

And Kacchan realized in that moment... Maybe that was the point.

So he looked his mother dead in the eye... And smiled.

To show her that he couldn't be beaten. To show her that he _would_ be Number One. That he wouldn't be second to her or to _anyone_.

He was surprised by her response.

For the first time he could remember, he saw the confidence crack, just a hair.

She actually backed away a step.

Her gaze was... Worried. Almost fearful.

Kacchan widened his smile, not caring now that it had come out a little feral through his rage and frustration.

"You hear me?" he asked, raising his voice. _"I'll kill you."_

"What are you smiling at?" she asked and her voice shook a bit.

_Oh,_ he thought elatedly, _it really __was_ _fear._

He wanted to laugh outright but he just held the smile, feeling the way it hardened like armor over his weakness and insecurity.

She moved towards him, probably worried she'd hit him too hard, perhaps damaged her precious ticket to a life of wealth and ease.

He smacked her hand away, noting the slick coating that slimed his hand as they made contact.

Wow, he really _had_ scared her!

"Don't touch me!" he snarled through bared teeth, careful not to lose the smile which had provided him with such an unexpected advantage.

"Don't talk to me that way!" she shouted.

And he knew in that moment, he really _had_ won. She rarely shouted at him, far too confident in her superiority to give way to her temper.

Maybe, at long last, the tables were finally beginning to turn.

"I'll talk to you anyway I want, you ugly old hag!" he shouted back. "What are you going to do, huh? You're nothing without me! What are you going to do?!"

He watched her face twist into an expression of enraged frustration.

It was like an out-of-body experience, seeing what she must see on his face so often staring back at him.

"Eat your food, you little monster!" she screamed. He didn't even flinch, knowing she had given up. Knowing she had lost her edge in this fight. Knowing she knew this as well as he did. "What is _wrong_ with you!" she shouted.

He didn't even bother to answer as she retreated. He grinned and sat back, listening to her yelling at his father in the next room, transferring her anger to an easier target.

Kacchan got up off the floor and ate his dinner in peace, ignoring the roiling of the adrenaline through his system, the flipping of fear and exhilaration in his gut.

He'd never once bested his mother, not on any level.

He was getting better.

And now he had a new weapon to add to his arsenal.

If it worked on _her_... It would work on _anyone_.

All Might had had the right idea all along, as usual.

Kacchan had missed it, too absorbed in the combat.

He should have paid more attention, should have known All Might never did anything by accident.

Deku had noticed, though.

Not that he could ever understand something like this.

With his safe life and his boundless horizons… Deku had never known what it was to have _nothing_ and to keep fighting regardless.

Still...

_Thanks, Deku,_ Kacchan thought.

_The End_

* * *

From what I hear, this topic of whether or not Bakugo's situation counts as abuse is a bit of a hot button issue. From my perspective, an adult hitting a child is never NOT abuse. And it seems very unlikely that Mitsuki started hitting him only after he got old enough to hit back.

Whoops. Consider that can of worms open, I guess.

Thanks for reading!


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